Hurricanes agree to terms with Manny Malhotra

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Hurricanes agree to terms with Manny MalhotraManny Malhotra agreed to terms on a one-year, two-way contract with the Carolina Hurricanes

The Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday agreed to terms with veteran center Manny Malhotra on a one-year, two-way contract. The contract will pay Malhotra $600,000 at the NHL level, or $125,000 at the American Hockey League level, with a guarantee of $250,000.

"Manny brings a level of veteran leadership to the Hurricanes organization and gives the team depth at the center position," Hurricanes general manager Jim Rutherford said. "He has demonstrated in his career that he can be an extremely good defensive player and faceoff man."

Malhotra, 33, signed a professional tryout contract with the Charlotte Checkers, the Hurricanes' AHL affiliate, on Oct. 3 and played in eight games.

He appeared in nine games last season with the Vancouver Canucks. He had no points but won 65.3 percent of his faceoffs. He missed most of the season with a recurring eye injury he first sustained in 2011.

He was selected by the New York Rangers with the seventh pick of the 1998 NHL Draft, Malhotra made his NHL debut in the 1998-99 season. He has 108 goals, 170 assists and 421 penalty minutes in 864 regular-season games with the Rangers, Dallas Stars, San Jose Sharks and Canucks. He led his teams in faceoff-win percentage in each of his past eight full seasons.

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I don't have a crystal ball. Predicting is a real complicated thing. If we stay healthy, have enough depth and get the good goaltending we think we're going to have, you can go all the way. But a lot of things have to happen. There's going to be a lot of teams that think the same thing. Everyone made deals. We're all are optimistic about where we'll end up.

— Rangers general manager Glen Sather after being asked if he's constructed a team that can win the Stanley Cup before their 4-1 win against the Predators on Monday